


In A Hideout Underground

by chronicAngel



Series: Leaves in the Summer [50]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Blank Period, Childbirth, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, POV Third Person, SasuSaku Month 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2017-07-05
Packaged: 2019-01-08 22:45:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12263595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chronicAngel/pseuds/chronicAngel
Summary: "Sakura, you need to pay attention."SasuSaku Month 2017 Day 5: Blood, Sweat, and Tears





	In A Hideout Underground

It's dark.

It's dark even before she squeezes her eyes shut and even before pain blinds her to her surroundings, filling her vision with an edged whiteness that makes her head ache as she tries her best not to yell. She doesn't hold the idiotic belief that screaming during childbirth shames the family. After all, it's natural to scream when you're in pain or you're afraid, it's your brain's immediate, instinctive response, like jerking your hand away when you place it on top of a hot stove or pressing your hand into a stinging wound when you realize that it's bleeding. No, the reason that she's trying not to scream is because she knows she's stronger than that.

Her breaths are labored, and she exhales sharply when every muscle in her abdomen clenches again, as though trying to forcibly evict the extra passenger now that enough time has been spent freeloading; she supposes that's sort of what's happening. Still, her fingers clench around the sheets, hastily arranged on the ground of one of Orochimaru's hideouts after she arrived, Sasuke's arm supporting her and her hands holding her stomach as though gripping it would make the pain go away. Now, her fingers scramble for purchase in the fabric, and she barely registers the sound of it ripping as she grips too hard.

She has to struggle to pull her hand away from it, feeling dirt gather under her fingernails from where they just scraped against the stone ground, and in a flash her husband is at her side, offering her his hand for what small comfort he may be able to offer. She takes it gratefully, squeezing as gently as she can as though trying to reassure him. The air around them is cold and though when they first arrived it made her shiver, as though Karin had manipulated the environment to give the area around them an unnatural draft, it now relieves her. The air is cool against her skin, which is currently slick with sweat and as red as her husband's favorite fruit. She squeezes her eyes tightly shut, hoping that may stop her from breaking all of the small, fragile bones in Sasuke's hand and fingers, as a large part of her is certain that she won't have the energy to heal him after this is over, partially due to how exhausting this whole process is, and partially due to how distracted she will be with checking every part of her child.

The pain that runs through her body is like a sharp throbbing, like her entire body is being stabbed all at once in waves, and it makes her feel surprisingly sick as she finally lets out a yelp. It's not the yells or screams that threaten to tear through her, but it's enough that her face would turn red with shame if it wasn't already red with effort. Tears are running down her cheeks, though she's not exactly crying.

Sasuke looks at her as though this is the hardest thing he has ever had to do, as though watching her struggle so much is harder than the actual pain she is going through, and if she was more aware, she would probably be angry. She thinks that if he could, he would go through all of this for her.

It's not comforting, but it's enough that she can stifle a few yells. Everything about this is hard, and she squeezes Sasuke's hand as hard as she can without breaking it, trying to ignore the pained expression that crosses over his features. She yanks her hand away when she feels the familiar sensation of bones bending with the strain and effort of trying not to break, and cracks her eyes open desperately to look at his face, sweat and tears mixing in her eyes and making them sting more than they do when she gets shampoo or conditioner in her eyes. Of course, she hasn't had access to either of those things in a couple of weeks. They've been traveling non-stop toward this hideout, and they haven't had time to stop in any towns, even for Sakura's birthday.

With a loud yell, she pushes for the first time, and she has to focus harder than she ever has before on not crushing her child's head. While having the strength to crush mountains is helpful in the life of a shinobi, it means that she has to be extra careful as a parent; everything is a strain not to let her muscles clench around her child's body, and this is added to the mounting effort that is actually bringing the kid into the world in the first place. She leaves bruises on her own skin as she curls her hands into fists, fingertips biting harshly into her palms, nails scraping against the skin and threatening to break it. She's never been in this much pain before, and she clenches her teeth to hold back another scream that forces its way from her vocal cords anyway and echoes off the stone walls of the hideout.

She focuses on the area around her in the attempt to clear her head a bit; it looks like a cave, but if it is, it's not a naturally occurring one, and it's a fairly new man-made one at that. There are no stalactites or stalagmites around them to signify any real age of the place, but its stone walls and floor and the distant sound of water dripping reminds her in every way of the caverns she has had to explore on missions, and the cool air only supports that theory. She inhales dampness and exhales heat, and her entire body is coursing with a warmth that reminds her of fire release the few times she has attempted it.

"Sakura, you need to pay attention."

Karin scolding her feels like a mockery from deities she doesn't even believe in, but she gives a minuscule nod even as she tries to tune out the sounds of her own yells and cries while she pushes. She focuses instead on the distant dripping of water, and she drags her nails along the stone floor again, her palms stinging as dirt from the ground gets in the small puncture wounds where she buried her own nails in her skin, leaving little, bloody pits.

She cries requests for things she doesn't even comprehend, sedatives and pain medications and anything that might make this feeling go away, but Karin doesn't react at all as she just tells her to push almost rhythmically. She'll push, count to eight, stop to breathe, and then four seconds later Karin will tell her to push again. She lets out a yell of frustration, pushing as hard as she can and resisting the urge to press her legs together just to stop the pain.

Hours blur together in a hazy mess of pain and trying not to break her husband when he offers her his hand, because after so long, _so long_ of feeling as though he didn't even see her, she can't refuse his hand. She especially can't when she knows that he's worrying about her, when she might be able to offer him as much reassurance as he can her. Karin tells her to push again and in frustration she is tempted to lash out, to throw her fist toward the woman she tentatively calls a friend just so she can get her to shut her mouth and let her do this on her own because she _can._

She yells things she doesn't even think about until she finally gives a last push, and a feeling resembling relief washes over her as the pain stops, replaced with the ache of a wound that is already starting to mend itself. She looks down and sees Sasuke cut their daughter's umbilical cord with a kunai, sees deep red stains on the sheet and on their baby's skin and-- her breath hitches as her eyes land on their child.

Unlike a typical midwife might, Karin doesn't announce the sex of their child, but they both plainly see that it's a girl. She immediately reaches out for the baby, but Karin warns her to be patient and takes their daughter into the other room which makes Sasuke tense beside her; she is too weak to have a similar reaction.

She comes back two full minutes later, and though she protests and whines, she eventually passes their child to Sakura. As clueless as Karin often feels about social cues, she has the courtesy to leave the two of them alone with their baby, who screams and wails but is still more precious than anything Sakura has ever seen. Eventually, she reaches out, and their daughter curls one of her little fingers around Sakura's and the tears spill over again. Sasuke is next to her in an instant, holding out his arm to help support their daughter as though Sakura could ever drop her.

In a hideout underground, Sasuke and Sakura Uchiha hold their daughter for the first time.


End file.
